can do nothing except for the building up and not for destroying, for this is the plenitude of power to be able to do all things to build up. These things, however, which they call provisions, are not adapted to build up, but clearly to destroy. Therefore, the most blessed apostolic see is not able to make these provisions."[1] These things by him of Lincoln, who appealed from Pope Innocent to the tribunal of Christ.
For this reason Castrensis, VII, tells how when Robert of Lincoln was dead, a voice was heard in the papal curia, Come, wretch, to thy judgment. And the pope was found the next morning dead as if pierced in the side by the point of a staff. And he of Lincoln, although noted for striking miracles, is nevertheless not admitted to a place in the list of the saints.[2]
And it is clear that the pope may err, and the more grievously because, in a given case, he may sin more abundantly, intensely and irresistibly [than others], as said Bernard in his book addressed to Pope Eugenius:[3] "More abundantly if
the sin extends to all Christendom, more intensely if his act concerns the cure of souls and involves the withdrawal of spiritual benefits, and more irresistibly if no one dares to gainsay him, now in view of his alliance with the secular arms, now in view of the cloaked censures which he fulmi-
- ↑ A provision is the gift of a spiritual office or living by pope or bishop. The theory was that all the livings in Christendom were in the pope's hands for bestowment, a theory receiving its full statement from Clement IV, 1265. See Schaff, Ch. Hist., V, part 2, 83 sqq. The Avignon popes, 1305–1377, appointed two and sometimes three successors with right to succeed living incumbents of ecclesiastical positions. A collation is equivalent to a provision.
- ↑ The full quotation runs, Rolls Series, 8: 242: "Robert was summoned to the curia and excommunicated, but he appealed from Innocent's tribunal to the bar of Christ. Hence it happened after his death, Robert appeared to that pope in the night while he was lying in bed, himself clad as a bishop and said, Arise, wretch, and come to thy judgment. And straightway he pierced him with his pastoral staff in the left side unto the heart, and so the pope's bed was found in the morning full of blood and the pope was dead." Variations were given of this popular story. Matthew Paris, who has unbounded admiration for Grosseteste, reports that on the night of his death strange bells were heard.
- ↑ Quoted in chapter IX by its title, de Consideratione.
